Blood Pays
by tawnyeyes10
Summary: Twice in his life Bobby has received a call that has made him turn cold. Written for the Unattainable Dreams Prompt Exchange.


**Blood Pays**

Unattainable Dreams Prompt Exchange

Summary: Twice in his life Bobby has received a call that has made him turn cold.

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Bobby enjoyed Hockey, he enjoyed catching a game on their TV and he enjoyed the pick-up games he and his brothers were prone to play. Bobby liked Hockey enough to try and make a career out of it and thus was not exactly happy to have the game he was watching interrupted by a the shrill ring of the phone. His Ma, Evelyn Mercer, the best thing that ever happened to him and his three younger brothers, was on holiday. The only she had had since she told Bobby that she wanted to adopt him, then done the same to three other poor, unwanted kids. Jeremiah was over at his girlfriend Camille's and Angel was 'out with friends,' which Bobby read as spending quality time with 'La Vida Loca' or Sofi as Angel insisted the banshee be called. God knows what Jackie was up to but he was not playing his guitar in his room, so assumedly he was out.

Bobby was the only one home and he was quite content to leave the phone ringing itself out. No one important ever called unless it was for Evelyn and everyone important knew she was away, so it could not be a significant call. Thus, Bobby simply turned up the volume on the TV and sunk deeper into the couch.

Ads flashed across the small screen of the TV when Bobby's mobile began to vibrate on the shelf, where he had left it after calling for pizza the previous night. He spared it a sideways glance before leaving the couch to grab it off the shelf. The caller was unknown but Bobby answered anyway.

"Hello, is this Bobby Mercer?"

It was a female, nice sounding but unknown to him. A possible hook-up from former years, he supposed.

"Yeah," he replied gruffly, the game had come back on and his focus was directed at the TV more than the woman on the phone.

"You're the emergency contact for Jack Mercer, along with Mrs. Evelyn Mercer, correct? You're his brother, yes?"

Bobby stilled on the couch, there was an unknown chill spreading through his veins as though his blood had turned to ice. The only time he received calls like this was when Jackie had been seriously hurt. He became the emergency contact for Jackie years ago, when he was still living in Detroit, and he had meant to change it or transfer it onto Jeremiah or something. It had made sense back then because Jackie was always getting into some kind of trouble, he attracted it like a fucking magnet, and Bobby was generally available to pick him up from the emergency room and then grill him on exactly how he got put there. Now, Bobby was glad he had never bothered, although it was Evelyn who 'cared and comforted' his brother when he got home.

"Yeah, what's this all about? Has something happened to Jack?"

The woman, probably a nurse, answered promptly, "He was brought in with a head injury, the hospital needs you or Evelyn Mercer to come in. It'll be easier on your brother if someone familiar is there when he wakes."

Bobby was already halfway to the car, hanging up on the nurse and dialling his other two brothers as he went. He hated hospitals but Jack hated them more, the sooner Bobby took him home the better.

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Bobby held Jack's face between his hands as blood dripped onto the snow below them. It poured from his little brother's mouth and the youngest Mercer struggled to breathe around the thick liquid. It was so red against the snow. Of all Mercers to fall to Sweet's men, it had to be Jackie.

"Come on, Jackie, ya' gotta breathe!"

Bobby was begging, he could not loose both his mother and Jackie, however it was too late to do anything now. His younger brother was trying to stay with them, Bobby could see it in his pained blue eyes, but the injures were severe and he was lying in cold as he slowly bled out. The ambulance would not get there fast enough, not to save him. The kid was only twenty-one, too innocent to be apart of Bobby's world and too young to die in the snow outside his Ma's house.

The cries of the youngest Mercer still rang in the ears of all his brothers and Sofi's, the screams of 'Bobby!' as their little Jackie lay on the side of the street after being shot multiple times by Sweet's men. It was the worst sound that Bobby had ever heard, the only thing that compared was when Jackie's voice cracked when he stood on the verge of a breakdown but what Bobby would give for a meltdown instead of this.

"Don't you die on me, you little fairy! Come on, Jack. Please! Ya' gotta breathe! Come on."

Jack smiled up at his brothers, at Bobby, and his choking breathes faltered, before stopping altogether.

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Jack was unconscious, the nurse had at least explained that much when Bobby rushed in. He paced the waiting room, the doctor was supposed to 'be along' and explain exactly what was wrong with Jack, and he was getting impatient. He would much rather be waiting by Jack's bedside, so as to ascertain for himself the damage caused to his little brother, be there when he awoke, and get him out of the place as quickly as possible.

Bobby wanted to know what fuckers had hurt his brother but Jackie would need someone to make sure he didn't do anything stupid. Angel would have to do the honours this time, Bobby could delegate when needed.

'Minor head injury,' the nurse had said when he came in, and Bobby had enough experience with that through hockey to know that aside from mild confusion, a pounding headache, possible nausea, and drowsiness, Jackie would be well enough to tell him the bare details of what transpired. Although, Bobby amended, he might need to add tears to the list of effects of a minor head injury in relation to their little fairy.

Jack might be seventeen but he was still ridiculously sensitive, the most sensitive out of all his brothers although that was not saying much. Jackie crying would be a bitch to watch but Bobby could take it.

"Are you Bobby Mercer?"

The doctor approached from down the hallway. Bobby nodded and the doctor looked down at his chart.

"Well, your brother's going to be fine. Make sure he rests for a couple of days and bring him back in if he feels dizzy or faints, we'll prescribe some pain medication for him, but other than that when he wakes up he can go."

The doctor paused, eyes flicking down the chart and back up to Bobby, "We were lucky this time, Mr. Mercer. Next time, the damage could be serious."

The doctor headed over to talk to the nurse at the counter, throwing a "Room 104" over his shoulder to Bobby. A nurse came over to escort him to his brother's room.

Jack was pale but thankfully, fine.

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The rosary around Bobby's neck was heavy, it had been since he took it from Jackie's neck and hung it around his own, and it felt no lighter now that vengeance had been delivered. Sweet was dealt with, finished off by his own underlings.

Despite this, Bobby felt no relief. Vengeance was empty when it came to something as serious as the lives of family, no amount of vengeance could bring his brother and mother back. When he was younger taking retribution against those he believed had wronged him was a thrilling and adrenalized act, however at this point, Bobby felt no less grief and no less pain from the completion of this justice. He could only be relived that no others of his family or those that his family cared about could be hurt. The only question that remained was what he would do now?

He returned to the ruined remains of his ma's house, tears pricking his eyes as he saw the ghost of Jack on couch and the phantom sound of a guitar being plucked from the upstairs. With laden footfalls, Bobby dragged himself to the couch and collapsed. The incessant vibrating of his mobile caused him to open bleary eyes and pick up the phone.

"Hello," he rasped into the receiver, he felt dead tired, heavy and hollow like he was Scrooge from A Christmas Carol, a movie Jackie forced him to watch every Christmas until he was eighteen and Bobby was gone for the longest period yet – Bobby didn't know if he watched it that year, Bobby didn't come home for Christmas or any other holidays that year. 'I wear the chain I forged in life, I made it link by link,' Bobby thought.

His chains weighed on him now. The grief of loss, the emptiness of retribution and the knowledge that he had made his bed, as had his brothers, but it was Jackie, the youngest, who suffered for their mistakes.

"Mr. Mercer…Bobby, I mean. We've been trying to reach you for several hours, concerning your brother–"

"Who is this?" Bobby interrupted, with enough bite to make the person on the other line bleed, a soft-spoken female, who sounded like she knew him.

"M-m-memorial Hos-hosptial…"

The person on the other line stuttered in getting the words out, but Bobby got enough worked out to leap out of the chair.

"What about my brother?"

"W-well when the ambulance picked him up he wasn't breathing–"

"I know that," Bobby growled menacingly, "I was there when he died, don't waste my time with shit like this!"

He made to hang up, when the voice on the phone babbled loudly, "Wait, Mr. Mercer! The paramedics where able to resuscitate your brother and staunch the bleeding, your brother's alive."

Bobby's body froze, the memories of a similar but very different call rising to the surface of his mind, his imaginary chain clinking cold against his skin. He saw his brother die, but evidently Jackie willed himself to not stay dead.

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Words floated in and out of Bobby's ears but his eyes remained fixed on the body of his brother, once again looking pale but remarkably, reassuringly alive. The Doctors talked to all of the Mercers but Jeremiah was the only one truly listening, Angeal was staring into his coffee, sitting by Jackie's feet, and Bobby was wandering slowly towards the other side of Jack's bed.

"Cerebral Hypoxia…Deprived of oxygen."

Bobby feared blinking because if he blinked then Jack's heart might falter and flatline while his lids were closed, this fear of loss was new to Bobby but it was becoming far too familiar. His hand reached out and grasped his brother's, the tangible feeling of the answering squeeze that Jack gave even unconsciously comforting Bobby, his brother was indeed alive, when the rise and fall of chest seemed like a mere hallucination. Bobby was never one for seeking comfort but before his brother's hospital bed, he allowed himself to indulge himself.

"Possible brain damage. We won't know how serious the damage is until he regains consciousness, however the longer he remains in a coma the chances of him recovering become far less. If his brain activity drops during the coma, then he may descend into a vegetative state, but right now the odds are in his favour for recovery."

Bobby sat by his brother's bedside, his grip remaining firm. His lips curled into a small smile as Jack squeezed his hand again, but remained unconscious. Jack would be fine, just fine, and Bobby could forge some new links for his chain – ones that he would carry proudly as proof of his commitment to his family, to Jackie.

"You'll be all right, ya' hear me fairy. You'll be making that racket again before we're used to the quiet."

Jack's lips twitched even as he lay comatose.

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Bobby and his brothers rebuilt their Ma's house in the following weeks, so Jackie would have a place to stay when he got better. To which some dark part of Bobby's mind would always whisper, 'if he got better.' As long as the coma persists, Jack slips further away from recovery, and the coma does persist.

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**Prompt: What happens when the hero is turned into a vegetable?**

Challenge Completed.

Tawny


End file.
